


A Baker and Her Chaton

by PotatoTrash0



Series: Love Square Angst: A Series [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Acts Like a Cat, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Romance, Angst with a Happy Ending, Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, If you squint really hard you can see Chat crushing on Mari for a moment, Implied Relationships, Marichat | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Nicknames, POV Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, POV Alternating, POV Female Character, POV Male Character, POV Marinette Dupain-Cheng, POV Multiple, POV Outsider, POV Third Person, Pre-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:21:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23232376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PotatoTrash0/pseuds/PotatoTrash0
Summary: Marinette finds Chat Noir on her balcony, sad and needing a hug, and who is she to leave her chaton alone?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Love Square Angst: A Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1858324
Comments: 9
Kudos: 238





	1. Midnight Retreats

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of angst and comfort practice! And some fluff towards the end, because I’m weak.

Marinette was tired, she was stressed, and she really just wanted to pass out for a month.  
So, understandably, she wasn’t keen on dealing with whatever the hell was knocking on her trapdoor at midnight.

Marinette growled, tossing her pencil down on her desk in a fit of frustration. Storming up the steps and slamming open the trapdoor, she yelled, “What do you want?”

Of all the things she was expecting, a familiar blond in leather was not one of them.

“Chato—Chat Noir?” Marinette corrected herself at the last minute. What was this kitty doing here at this hour?

Her partner, usually so light-hearted and playfully annoying, didn’t have the same air as he often did. The grin she was so accustomed to seeing adorn his features was nowhere to be seen, a distant, apathetic look in its place.

Her anger disappeared, concern filling its spot. She climbed the rest of the way out of her trapdoor, gently shutting it behind her. “Chat, what’s wrong?”

The leather-clad boy didn’t respond, only curling up further, shifting from a hunched cross-legged sit to wrapping his arms around his knees, tail swishing over to lay across his feet. His ears were flat against his head, flipped forward.

Marinette’s frown deepened as the silence dragged on. “Did something happen? Why are you so quiet?”  
If he thought it was strange for her to be so concerned when they weren’t acquainted very well, he didn’t show it. As if he weren’t folded tight enough, he curled up more and brought his head down to his knees.

Her heart sunk. He seemed so...despondent. Where was her sunny partner? Her bright and joking friend? Her chaton?

Biting her lip, she racked her brain for something that might cheer Chat up, and she remembered one of their patrols last month. They had been joking around and she pointed out how cat-like Chat was when he was transformed; it was like he were half kitten. He had laughed and asked for scritches with a dramatic, pleading look on his face. It turned out he actually did enjoy it when she did that, and they were both surprised when he started purring.

Maybe...

Tentatively, Marinette set her hand on his head, petting lightly. Ever so slightly, Chat’s ears twitched up. She took it as a good sign and crooked her fingers to scratch at the base of his left ear, looking closely for more of his tells.

When he started shaking and shivering, Marinette stopped immediately, asking in a soft voice what was wrong. Chat whimpered pitifully, lifting his head up, barely visible tears in his green eyes.

He didn’t say anything, but his tail reached up to graze at her hand that had fallen down to his knee. She could almost hear her heart breaking as she looked at her chaton.

Gently, Marinette pulled Chat into her arms, petting him softly while her partner broke into sobs. She didn’t dare question, not while he was so fragile. Instead, she hummed quietly, remembering how her mother would sing for her when she was little and hurt. She hoped it was working.

Eventually, when her kitty’s cries weathered down into small sniffles and her shirt was wet from his tears, she tugged Chat away from her chest.

“You wanna tell me what’s wrong now, silly kitty?” Marinette gave him a smile, praying he wouldn’t start crying again.

Chaton’s eyes were shiny and starting fill with tears again, and for a moment she worried she upset him, but his mouth curled up into a weak smile, and he huffed in a small, supposed giggle. Her worries quelled further when his huffs turned into a chuckle, and then a full-blown laugh. She wasn’t sure what he was laughing at, but she was glad her partner was smiling again.

With her parents asleep, they were free to sneak into the kitchen and steal some leftover croissants and macarons. Her designs lay forgotten on her desk, and while the next morning brought a lot of stressing and rushing about, for the moment, Marinette was content simply to be with her chaton.


	2. Just a Bad Dream, I Promise.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little prequel to the previous chapter, and a bit of what happened after Chat calmed down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This...got a bit out of hand, but I’m happy with the result!!  
> Yes, there is more than angst in this, toward the end is a lot of fluff bc I can’t just let Chat be sad!!

Chat stared in horror at what he had done. Unblinking eyes made of stone looked back at him, a face frozen in fear.

“My...lady?” Chat whispered, so loud in his own ears, yet so quiet in the rumbling and crashing of falling buildings in the distance.

He got no response.

Chat’s breath caught in his throat, how could he do this? How could he cataclysm his calm before the storm, his partner, his /love?/

He didn’t register that fact that Paris was falling apart around him, the fact that he probably just mass murdered an entire city.   
All his focus was on his lady, frozen in time, a statue that moved with grace no longer.  
It hit him that he would never see Ladybug’s bluebell eyes glimmer with a clever plan, never hear her sweet voice joke around with him, never feel the joy that came with making her laugh, ever again.

His heart stung, and he shakily reached out a hand to brush his lady’s cheek.

As soon as his fingers made contact, Ladybug fell to pieces before his eyes.

He stared as his peace, his relief, his other half disintegrated in front of him. He blinked once, twice, at the pile of dust that blew away with a gust of wind.

A choked sound that may have been “No,” in another life escaped his throat. His eyes glistened with unshed tears. His hand, still outstretched, twitched, only closing in on itself.

He didn’t do anything for a moment. 

Then, all at once, his resolve broke, the dam smashed into pieces, and everything fell apart.

Chat’s eyes overflowed and he started sobbing, an ugly cry on the concrete. He gasped for breath, his tastebuds only registering salt. His whole body was shaking, his own breathing loud and overwhelming.

\---

Adrien shot up with a gasp, eyes wet and lungs burning, in a cold sweat.

His mind was blank for a second, then a rush of memories slammed him in the gut, tears spilling once again.

He...he almost lost her. He almost cataclysmed her. He almost killed her.

Adrien shook his head, weakly sniveling, arms coming up to wrap himself in a hug.

It wasn’t real, he told himself, it was a stupid dream that wouldn’t ever come true.   
But it had the possibility, a dark voice in his head said, you do hold the miraculous of destruction.

“No...no, stop.” He sniffled, heaving a lungful of air and suppressing the tears. He couldn’t cry...he was Adrien Agreste—  
He cut off that train of thought. Damn it, he thought he had taken care of that problem.

A need to simply be out of his stuffy bedroom and feel the wind in his ears rushed through him.

He needed a distraction anyways, he reasoned, just to get his mind off of that...horrible dream. Adrien shuddered just thinking about it.

Simply transforming helped. Leaping out into the crisp night air helped more. The familiar rush of adrenaline he got when flying across roofs helped most.

He didn’t really pay attention to where he was going, simply thinking that he needed a safe space.   
Within minutes, he was on a small balcony, adorned with fairy lights and plants, a pink-and-white striped lounge chair, a white, haphazardly pinned up makeshift umbrella, and a small wooden platform with a clay teapot and cups.

The area was...nice. Calm and homey, for a balcony. It was so different than his house, white and black, modern and sleek, uncomfortable and unwelcoming. This was a glimpse into a fireplace and tea during fall, surrounded by loved ones.

Unknowingly, his tail had started to thump against the trapdoor while Chat sat down, lost in a dream, a pleasant escape like he wanted.

It was when his classmate, Marinette, slammed up and yelled that he snapped out of his trance, staring at the normally sweet girl so angry. He startled inwardly, forgetting that this was her home.

Chat must have had a strange look on his face, because her expression melted into confusion, and in a gentle, almost motherly voice, she asked, “Chat, what’s wrong?”

The tone made him curl up, heart stinging at the striking similarity to his mom. He remembered so little of her, but the best memories were when she spoke softly and kindly. When she would comfort him after a...bad dream.

Chat didn’t completely register what Marinette said after that, folding up further, a flash of his dream and his mother’s voice rushing through him. It was so foreign to hear someone speak so gently, so caring. It had been years since anyone truly loved him.

He felt a hesitant touch on his head, and his ear twitched out of surprise. Once again, a wave of nostalgia came over him, his mother’s touch so far away yet so close, and a fleeting thought of his lady watered his eyes.

Suddenly and all too soon, the warm touch went away and Marinette asked in the same tone she had used this entire time, “Chat, what’s bothering you?”

Chat glanced up at her, and the look on her face was so concerned he whimpered, and he damned the weak sound to hell. Once he was pulled into a hug, though, he couldn’t really put any conviction into it.

A final shiver ran through his body and he broke down again, feeling mildly guilty Marinette had to deal with his mess, but with the soft reassurances that he was safe and sound, there really wasn’t much that could make him feel any less than she promised.

She didn’t push, and for that he was grateful. Chat wasn’t sure if he was ready to relive that nightmare again, not in front of someone he regarded so highly and held so near. Though, she had already seen one breakdown, what was one more, he mused.

Through his shaking and bawling, Marinette stroked his hair and spoke soft encouragements that, even through his own racing thoughts, sounded loud and firm and comforting. Absently, he realized that she was really good at this. Probably from babysitting Manon and Chris, according to Nino and Alya.

When Chat stopped crying his eyes out, she pulled away and joked, “You wanna tell me what’s wrong now, silly kitty?”  
For the second time that night, he was reminded of Ladybug, and he had to laugh. They really were similar, he thought, almost like twins. She wasn’t called their Every Day Ladybug for no reason, he supposed.

Ten minutes later, they were in Marinette’s room, croissants and macarons in front of them, controllers in hand. If he didn’t know that she was a master of video games before, now he did. She seemed to have every combo and strategy down pat, and every time he got a sense of what she was going to do, she switched it up.  
Chat never won a round, but just hanging out with Marinette without her seeming uncomfortable like she was with Adrien was the most fun he’d had in a while.  
She was witty and relaxed around Chat, joking and bragging and so unbelievably funny, all done with an ease he had never seen from her as Adrien.

She showed him her designs, and he felt a bit of pride seeing that she had a whole page dedicated to Chat Noir. She really was an amazing fashion designer, and he said as much. He laughed out loud at her cherry red face, and even more so when she threw a pillow at his head.

The night ended with Marinette shooing him off her balcony when she saw that it was 3 am, snickering at his pouting. In truth, he knew it was late, but he didn’t really want to leave. Not when all that awaited him back home was his full, yet so empty room.

She sent him off with a flick on his forehead and a suggestion that he could visit her tomorrow, all day Saturday.   
The idea stuck with him, and he couldn’t fully excuse the giddy excitement he felt when it was Friday night, or the fact that he left at 8 in the morning to knock on her window with a grin and a bag of doughnuts he bought at her bakery below.

The early rise was absolutely worth it, he decided, as he saw Marinette’s surprise turn to a slightly exasperated smile.  
“What am I going to do with you, silly kitty?” She sighed, opening the window, hair messy and face imprinted with marks from the bedsheets. She may have just woken up, but she still looked beautiful, he thought.  
Chat’s grin widened, “Eat these five-star pastries?” He lifted up the paper bag as a gesture.  
Marinette laughed, “Alright, chaton. Come on in.”


End file.
